Nelson school ‘is answering demand to improve’

OFSTED have found that a Nelson primary school is rapidly improving after the watchdog told them to improve earlier in the year.

A recent inspection of St John Southworth RC School found that actions had been taken to improve standards of maths and English and the effectiveness of teaching assistants was getting better because of increased training and development.

In April, the Lancashire Telegraph reported that the Lomeshaye Road school was rated as ‘requires improvement’ after formerly being a ‘good’ school. But staff say they are now confident their ‘good’ status will be returned by the time of the next inspection.

Headteacher Christopher Higgins said: “We’re really pleased with the findings of the monitoring report and are very happy with it.Ofsted have said that we are rapidly improving and we feel that to be the case.

“Since we were told we required improvements, we have taken a number of steps to make sure we’re moving in the right direction.

“We are holding weekly training and development meetings with all our TAs and have improved the way we mark and give feedback on children’s work.

“We have a good team here and the children are fantastic. We feel confident that we will get back to where we want to be, which is as a ‘good’ school.”

Ofsted carried out their inspection on June 24. Their findings, published in a letter to the school, said: “Pupils’ learning behaviours are improving because they are taught how to learn, and not just how to complete tasks.

“Teaching is improving because senior leaders have evaluated teachers’ strengths and subsequently deployed teachers more effect- ively to make better use of them to increase standards.”

The letter also praises the ‘tenacity’ of the maths subject leader and the governors for ‘rising to the challenge of improving the school’.